I was in Norfolk, VA this week for two days and got to do something I never get to do... watch daytime TV. Martha Stewart's show was on and I watched a segment where a guest, Lina Kulchinski, founder of
Sigmund Pretzels, shared her
recipe for soft pretzels. The dough looked gorgeous that I haven't been able to get them off my mind since. I knew as soon as I could get myself into the kitchen I would be making these pretzels.
Prior to making the Sigmund pretzels I went over to the Food Network's website to see what
Alton Brown had to say about the subject. The same Alton Brown who has you roast your own peanuts and then pulverize them into homemade peanut butter before turning them into a decadent peanut butter pie makes a one-day pretzel with much less rigamarole. I wondered which pretzel recipe would produce a superior result and decided to try the pretzels head-to-head to see if the beer, brown sugar, and overnight nap really created a better pretzel.
Both original recipes call for the kneading to be done by machine. Both recipes re-produced on this website call for hand-kneading. If you have a stand mixer with a dough hook attachment links are provided to both original recipes.
